The Exhibitor (1960)

The NEW YORK Scene By Mel Konecoff JOE LEVINE BOUGHT lunch again last week and decided it was about time he got around to discussing pictures and promotions again. For instance, he’s all excited about his forthcoming “The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah,” which will be his most expensive film costing about three million dollars and which will be his Christmas attraction. He figures on opening the film in 50 top cities abroad simultaneously and to spend a million on advertising and promoting these openings. Domestically he’ll open in another 50 to 100 top cities and spend another million on these dates in U.S. and Canada. His co-producers in the venture will put up some of the money, with one. Consortium Pathe, signing to handle distribution in France, Belgium, and North Africa, and the other, Titanus, to handle the picture in Italy and Spain. No distribution has been set for the U.S. and Canada. It will be the first time that Levine will undertake a world-wide promotion. The film will not be road shown nor will it run three hours, said Levine. Other Levine films to be released during the year are “Morgan The Pirate,” which MGM will release in July, “The Thief of Bagdad,” which MGM will release in August; “The Wonders of Aladdin,” which MGM will release in the fall; “Two Women,” which Embassy will release in March, mainly in art theatres. Two other new films will also be released as will a pair of unidentified reissues. Levine estimated that about seven million dollars will be spent on promoting the program for the year. ENTERTAINMENT BY FOY: Producer Bryan Foy, once termed “Keeper of the B’s” be¬ cause of the large number of pictures he could turn out in a short time for little money — and most of these made money, was in town last week to plug his latest, "Blueprint For Robbery,” which Paramount is releasing. About nine or 10 years ago, he used to turn out 30 of the 60 films made at Warners per year, but since then he’s making one or two a year, concentrating on the exploitation or gimmick film. Why? Because he can’t afford the really big stars; he doesn’t think the “fringe pseudo stars” are worth much either in talent or at the boxoffice; and because gimmicks bring people into the theatre. He’s been doing pretty good with the films, generally retaining a piece of each he’s made for the last decade or so. Foy is the type of guy who doesn’t make ’em and forget ’em. He likes to hit the road and talk to theatremen, the press, and the public about films and their making, and he doesn’t stick to the big cities alone but wanders onto the side roads which reach the smaller towns. The results are reflected in better boxoffice results. Naturally, he does this with pictures he thinks have a chance. Foy likes to work with unknowns because they are easier to handle; they often fit the parts better and are less expensive. He thinks these “pseudo stars” and their agents jack up the cost of films with producers oft-times having to take them if they want the bigger stars from these agents. Exhibitors told him that these “alleged stars” aren’t worth a nickel at the boxoffice. Foy likes making his films at the major studios despite the overhead charges because they have everything needed to make a film. . . . Anyone who makes a western today for thea¬ tres is crazy because TV is loaded with them. . . . “Blueprint” cost $890,000 while “House of Wax” cost $750,000 and grossed seven millions. . . . His next will be “Ladies of the Big House,” also for Paramount, which will complete his two picture contract with the company. ALL ROADS LEAD TO MATOFSKY: That camel fancier and press agent known as Abdul Harvey Matofsky keeps sending all kinds of weird dispatches from Tunisia. The more weird they are, we think, the better Joe Levine likes them. For instance, one had filming on Levine’s “The Wonders of Aladdin” stopped because some Grand Mufti objected to a mosque being used as a movie set. He was arrested and riots and bloodshed followed; martial law was declared and Matofsky was ordered out of the city because he reported the riots to the news agancies in Rome. Another dispatch to us told of Matofsky, director Henry Levin, and star Donald O’Connor being arrested by Algerian border troops because they “accidentally” crossed the border minus their passports. They were released three hours later when these were produced. Y’know, Matofsky had a pretty good imagination when he was working in the UA pub¬ licity department. More adventures from Matofsky will undoubtedly follow. PROCESS NOTE: The other day we went over to the Rivoli to see 20th Century-Fox’s “The King And I” in the newly-developed projection process known as Grandeur 70. We thought it compared favorably to the other large screen pictures such as “The Alamo” and “Spartacus.” The stereophonic sound was also impressive. "David" Campaign Set NEW YORK — In an imprecedented move for an independent motion picture company, James A. Mulvey, president of BeaverChampion Attractions, Inc., has authorized an unlimited budget for the advertising, pub¬ licity and exploitation campaigns for “David and Goliath,” the company’s initial produc¬ tion, it was announced by Meyer M. Hutner, vice-president and advertising and publicity director of the company. Hutner announced that the unlimited bud¬ get will be spent locally, on a city-by-city basis. Full page, full color and full page blackand-white newspaper advertisements, satura¬ tion television campaigns, and saturation radio campaigns plus especially designed lobby display pieces will be used to reach every segment of the population. Special advertisements, appealing to the so-called Bible Belt theatre patrons also will be used in the campaign for this multi-mil¬ lion dollar spectacle, giving the exhibitors a choice of advertising material. Doris Day, acclaimed by the TOA as the world's Number One boxoffice attraction, gets an as¬ sist from Roy Evans, Los Angeles first-run district manager. Fox West Coast Theatres, in placing her hand prints in the famous fore¬ court of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Holly¬ wood. N.Y. Protestant Unit Backs Classification ALBANY— The New York State Council of Protestant Churches, in its annual “State¬ ment of Legislative Principles”— drafted by a 15-member Commission and mailed to every member of the Senate and Assembly, voiced “concern with the influence of moving pic¬ tures, television, radio, newspapers, comics, magazines, and books where these media are used to excite prurient interest and to offend decency, are obscene, or portray brutality and crime as desirable or acceptable.” “We support legislation,” declared the Commission, “to achieve more adequate pro¬ tection against the distribution of such ma¬ terials for such purposes, particularly where the distribution is directed to children and youth.” However, the Commission (of clergymen and laymen), qualified its support by saying, “We believe that legislation to control these media, though well intentioned, may be seri¬ ously detrimental if it violates or impairs civil rights; inhibits or restricts the free flow of ideas, however unpopular or unaccepted they may be with any segment of the com¬ munity, including our own; tends to super¬ impose the moral, ethical, or aesthetic prin¬ ciples and rationale or critique of any par¬ ticular segment of the community as a con¬ clusive and definitive test covering that to which the public shall have free access.” The Legislative Commission concluded its lengthy statement on “Mass Communications” with the declaration, “We oppose legislation which, while purporting to prevent the mis¬ use of liberty, tends toward indiscriminate censorship.” MGM Ups Heymann NEW YORK — Mel Heymann has been given new responsibilities in the Metro-GoldwynMayer home office advertising and publicity department, handling cooperative campaigns on the local level in conjunction with MGM’s field force across the country. Heymann, who has been office manager since 1950, already has assumed his new po¬ sition. Wallerstein Heads Council CHICAGO — David B. Wallerstein, presi¬ dent of Balaban & Katz Corporation, was named new chairman of the State Street Council. It marked the first time since 1936 that a non-retailer has headed up the asso¬ ciation, one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. (2 MOTION PICTURE EXHIBITOR February I, 1961